The present invention relates to a tape cartridge.
Media for data backup purposes, i.e., tape cartridges in which magnetic tapes are stored in cases, are used in a tape cartridge storage rack called a library. Thousands to tens of thousands of tape cartridges are stored in the library in loadable and unloadable manners. A specified tape cartridge stored in the library is chucked by a robot arm and transported to a specified drive. In this case, the robot arm reads management information (e.g., barcodes) displayed on the rear face of the tape cartridge to identify whether or not it is a desired tape cartridge. As shown in FIG. 15, management information 14a is printed on a label 14, which is affixed to a specified location of the case.
An information recognition portion of the robot arm targets only a specified region of the case for its recognition operation. Therefore, the label is affixed to the case in such a way that the management information falls within the recognition region that is the recognition target.
When users of the tape cartridges desire to change the contents of management information, they need to prepare labels with updated management information printed thereon, and replace old labels with the updated labels in such a way that the updated management information falls within the recognition region. Such replacement of labels were very burdensome to users and degraded efficient management of data. Thus, in conventional tape cartridges, management information could not be changed without replacement of labels.